This is a First Sundays for Families Service. Come at 9 AM to be part of the All-Ages Popup Choir and sing in our service. No experience or reading abilities necessary!
All services are in person at the Rockford Grange (4262 Barrett Dr. Hood River, OR) or online.
Writing in the shadow of the Holocaust in the years after the Second World War, German-American philosopher Hannah Arendt said: “The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.”
While many of us prefer to avoid using the word evil, I am reminded that the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was very much drawn to our liberal faith tradition when he was a student of theology at Boston University. However, he saw our tradition’s willingness to turn our faces away from evil forces – combined with our lack of a clear-eyed theology of evil – as inadequate to support the movement for civil rights and human dignity that he was working with others to build.
This month, many of us will focus our attention on the awe-inspiring resilience, resistance and moral strength of Black people in the United States of America, as we learn more about and celebrate Black History. Many of us will also be trying to make sense of the murder of a young mother, Renee Nicole Good, in Minnesota, by a federal ICE agent.
Whether or not you use the word evil to describe some of what is happening today, I hope you will join us as we connect with our own moral clarity and courage, so we can dare together greatly in 2026.
I hope to see you Sunday, February 1!
With love beyond belief, Barbara